The Chase
by latenightwriting
Summary: Percy Jackson has wanted Annabeth Chase his whole life, and now he has his chance, but things aren't as easy as he hoped they would be because, God, time does fly fast, and mistakes are made without thinking. AU, Percabeth. T for dark themes.
1. Beginnings

**Author's Note: **_Welcome, new readers. I first want to say thank you for checking out this story. I will try not to disappoint you. Next, for all my readers that have read my previous stories, this one will be a bit darker even though it won't seem like it at first. This will definitely be OOC. _

_Annabeth, Percy, AU, OOC-ness, sadness, rejection, high school, are they key words you need to know. Thanks!_

_Linebreak_

_The Scientist—Coldplay_

Yeah, we grew up together. So what? It doesn't mean I like her. I mean, maybe I do. A little. Okay, okay, okay, maybe a lot. Okay? Maybe I am in love with her. Okay, maybe I have loved her since I was fifteen. But, why should I tell you my story? Because you're interested? Well, fine, but I'm telling the story, don't say anything negative. It's a working progress.

This story starts when we were in the second grade. Annabeth Chase was the smartest girl in the class. Blonde hair stuck up in a pony-tail and grey eyes that looked like they were storm clouds, she was intimidating. I used to call her a Know-It-All, then she'd respond with some witty comment that I couldn't top, and when I didn't answer, she'd just storm away.

It went like that, back and forth for months on end, until Valentine's Day when I asked her be my Valentine. At first she said, "Ew. No."

I was so hurt I didn't know what to say, so I said, "Those are fragmented sentences."

To this day, I swear, the look on her face was priceless. "But . . . You . . ."

"But, but, yes, I _can _be a little smart when I want to," I said. I wiped the palms of my hands on my jeans to stop them from sweating. "So will you be my Valentine or what?"

After that, all I kept thinking was, she's gonna slap me, she's gonna slap me.

She frowned before giving me a kiss on the cheek and whispering in my ear, "You're a nuisance, Percy Jackson and not nearly as smart as I am."

I think she expected me to say something back, but I didn't. I stared at her with wide eyes, my face turning a dark shade of red.

"You're such a Seaweed Brain," she said.

"Why do you say that?"

"Because you swim a lot so your head must be full of seaweed," she said it as if she were saying something completely obvious.

"Well, gee, thanks. Wise Girl."

"Wise Girl?"

"Yes, Wise Girl. I heard Clarisse call you that last week."

"Well, you're stupid for copying her and, yes I will be your Valentine."

"Come on, Annabeth," I said walking to the water fountain before I could get angry. So I guess after all of that we were friends. At least I thought we were friends, but I could never tell with her. It was kind of a tradition; she (even though we were young and just friends) would be my Valentine every year. We played a lot together and grew close. We always had the same teachers up until fifth grade, so we grew apart a bit, but she had trouble with finding good friends to stick with so I was always there for her when she needed me.

Of course other kids would always assume that we were "going out" which was completely false then.

"Stupid's going out with Brainy! Take a look at that!"

Annabeth got suspended for punching Logan in the nose, but it was only a day because she'd never done anything like that before. When she got back the first thing she said to me was, "You owe me, Seaweed Brain."

"What for?"

"For getting me suspended!"

"Whatever. I didn't tell you to punch him in the nose!"

"Well, sorry! I felt obligated to!"

I had no clue what that meant, but I just stormed away in anger.

My life at home wasn't great either. My mom married this jerk named Gabe Ugliano who was stinky, ugly and disgusting guy with a beer problem. He wasn't the nicest person on the planet. All right, he was total asshole to my mother and me. I was always mad because my mother deserved better than that jerk. But we didn't really have a choice. He had money and he was keeping us alive.

Speaking about choices, I didn't really make great ones when it came to school. I wasn't the sharpest crayon in the box, but I had common sense and wit. Annabeth helped me a lot with studying for tests and homework. She's dyslexic and ADHD like me, so she could understand the hardships of school for people like us, but it wasn't that difficult for her. Loving school was second-nature for her which made it hard for her to see it through my eyes.

Sixth grade came and went pretty fast so that was a blur for us both. I do remember seventh grade, though. It was a different experience, but we both made it. Eighth grade was good (other than the strange body changes and the awkwardness between the opposite genders). Eighth grade is like a landmark signifying a sort of realization that came to my mind.

I started to really like Annabeth Chase. The girl I'd known since second grade. It made it harder to look at her or have normal conversations that we used to have with no problem. Now, when I looked at her, my thoughts scattered and I would stumble over my words. It's an absolutely horrible feeling if you haven't had it yet. It's like you just look at that person and your chest hurts and you take a deep breath to calm yourself down while you wonder how someone so _perfect _has come into your life. Getting hit by a truck is how it feels to be in love. You don't see it coming.

Many others would argue and say, "No, it's a beautiful thing and blah, blah, blah." But that's only if that person loves you back. It's pure torture when you don't have someone to share your love with.

At that time, I didn't have it that bad. I would later though.

This is where our journey begins.


	2. Explanations

_Want U Back—Cher Lloyd_

The lockers at Goode High were red and small, but big enough to fit just your books in and nothing else. Had an extra jacket you needed to store away? No room. Needed a place to put your lunch? No room. Place to put your P.E. clothes? You'd have to squish them into there so hard to the point where you looked stupid. That was me right now. Before anything could fall out I slammed the door closed and locked the shackle.

I hastily picked up my backpack and started running down the hall to reach class. I couldn't be late. I couldn't be late. I couldn't be late. My sneakers squeaked on the dirty, cream colored tile. I burst thought the door and sat in my seat right before the bell rang.

Annabeth surveyed me with playful, distasteful smile. She wiped her finger on the side of my forehead, "You're drenched in sweat."

"Yes, Ms. Obvious," I said. I dug in my backpack and brought out last night's homework. It's wrinkled and the second page was crumbled up, but, hey, at least I actually _finished _it. I looked over to Annabeth's homework. It was piled neatly with not a single crease. Her handwriting was so neat it looked like a computer typed it out instead of print. Her homework was as neat looking as her. She had her honey-blonde curls pulled into a pony tail. She wore jeans and a baby blue blouse that made her tan skin look like heaven. It was her spirited gray eyes stood out the most—the eyes that I fell for. But this was before we got into all that trouble.

"Tell me why you're sweating like a pig?" she asked. She wiped her finger off on _my _clean shirt.

"Unlike you, Annabeth, I have Gym in the middle of the day when it's hottest, while you have Gym in first period," I said. I tried to un-crumple the second page of my homework, but it still looked crappy so I left it alone.

"No, I don't have Gym because 'Gym' isn't a class. It's the place where you do PE. PE is your actual class," she corrected. She reached over and started helping me un-wrinkle the other pages of my homework.

"I don't care, same thing."

"How about, 'Thank you, Annabeth for helping my un-crinkle my poor excuse for homework,'" she said. I snatched it back from her and made them look as good as they could look. Mr. Blowfis was my mother's new boyfriend and my English teacher. He helped me get into this school because she was having a hard time finding a school to put me in. My mother—Sally—made Gabe leave a couple years back and she's been doing better ever since. Paul treated her well and makes her happy and that's good enough for me.

"Percy." I looked up to see Paul standing over me with the papers in hand. "I _watched _you do this last night and it looked better than it does now."

"About that . . ." My voice trailed off. "I lost my folder."

"All right, I'll see what I can do," he laughed. "Seventy five percent." I shrugged. Good enough for an English assignment. I don't know if you remember or not, but I told you that I have dyslexia and ADHD so English is about my worst subject.

"Perfect as usual," Paul said as he stamped Annabeth's homework. She stuck her tongue out at me.

"Shut up," I said to her. "You're just jealous because I can crumble up my homework better than you." I threw the crumbled up second page at her. She rolled her eyes and looked outside. It was snowing outside and it looked awesome. It was my favorite time of the year, well, because we had a three week winter break and I liked the snow. I had good memories in the snow.

"What are we doing for winter break?" she asked while Paul went around looking over homework.

"I don't know," I said. "Let's go camping."

"No, that would mean sharing a tent with a Seaweed Brain," she said. She laughed and elbowed me.

"Listen up everyone," Paul said. He stood in front of the SMART Board. "I know you guys are excited about winter break tomorrow, but I need you to pay attention. Annabeth faced the board, but I still looked at her. I loved the way her eyes lit up with determination whenever she was learning new—even though I hated school I thought she was beautiful. I turned back to Paul, I knew he wouldn't do it, but I didn't want to be called out for staring at Annabeth.

He started saying something about an assignment due when we got back, but I just tuned him out. I would ask him later tonight or next week or . . . the week after that.

Since it's the last day, he had us do a small assignment before we could free talk. I finished right when Annabeth did, gladly, because I really wanted to talk to her.

"Wise Girl," my voice caught her attention.

"Yes, Seaweed Brain," she said. She looked up from her book.

"I wanted to talk to you about—"

The annoying bell started ringing and destroyed every ounce of my confidence I had gathered. I should have just asked her then and there and everything bad wouldn't have happened. I would have saved her from pain and misery, but I was stupid then. I didn't know I would save her from anything.

"We'll take about it later, okay?" she suggested as she gathered her papers in her book bag.

"Why not now?" I ask. "It's lunch time."

"Well, yeah, but I have an architecture I meeting, Percy," she said. "I'll meet you by the gate after school and we'll walk to that ice cream place we like then we can talk it over there. I got to go, see you later." She shouldered her bag and left me in the room alone with Paul.

I must have looked pretty crestfallen because Paul asked, "Is everything okay, Percy?"

I turned and said, "Yeah, I'm fine." I started to shove the papers in my bag. I left the room without any further word.

~*~I~*~

Ah, the lunch room. I never really liked it, but I didn't like the library either when I hung out with Annabeth all the time. I wished we were sitting in that loveseat close by each other, but for now I sat by myself. Alone. I need some more friends, I thought. And as if on cue, a girl sat right across from me. She had frizzy, red hair that went everywhere and smoky green eyes. She wore a t-shirt that read: A THEMSELVES SHOE. Well, that's what I thought it read, but later on she told me it actually read: SAVE THE HOMELESS.

"Hey, you're Percy Jackson right?" She bit into one of those bland sandwiches the school served. I made a sour face—not at her, but at the sandwich. How could she eat that? I thought. Those are disgusting.

"Yeah, you are . . . Rachel Dare. We have science together," I said. I didn't have anything to eat so I just sat there and watched her eat.

"Rachel _Elizabeth _Dare," she corrected, but not in a tone Annabeth used, but in a more fun-loving tone.

When I didn't respond she said, "I didn't have anywhere else to sit and you look nice so I just sat here. I hope you don't mind."

"No, no, of course I don't mind. I need more friends anyway," I said.

Then there was that awkward silence that everyone hates.

"So I take it, you don't make a lot of friends easily," she said. That's when Annabeth sat down beside me.

"Hi, Percy. It turns out the meeting's don't start until next semester." She tosses me a granola bar.

"Thanks," I said. "Oh, Annabeth, this is Rachel Elizabeth Dare. She's in our science class." I didn't want Rachel to be there. I needed alone time with Annabeth.

"I know," Annabeth said. She dug out a Mark Twain book from her bag and started to read it intently.

"Is that all you do is read?" Rachel craned her neck to see what book she was reading.

"No, I had Red Robins with Percy last night." Annabeth closed her book and started to munch on a granola bar too.

"Seaweed Brain, I accidentally picked up one of your papers," Annabeth handed me a crumpled up piece of paper.

". . . Thanks . . ." The clock was ticking and as nice as Rachel seemed I want her to leave. Then the half-hour bell rang and it was time to go to the two last periods of the day.

"I'll see you in eighth period." Annabeth waved to me and walked away.

"Is she always like that?" Rachel asked me.

"Not usually, but she doesn't know you and she's not good at talking to people," I said. "See you around Rachel."

"Hey, we should hang out over winter break," Rachel said. She scribbled her number in Sharpie on my arm. I looked at her a little stunned, but she didn't seem to notice or care. Rachel turned around and left before I could say anything else.

**Author's Note: **_Pointless and short, but eh. I need a in between chapter._

_I'd appreciate it you shared your thoughts in reviews._


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